Crimping-drum for wire-fence machines



J. A. HOLMQUIST. CRlMPING DRUM FOR WIRE FENCE MACHINES. APPucAnpM FILED MAR. 22, 1920,

1,378,957, a Patented May '1921,

ZSHEEIS- T l.

J. A. HOLMQUIST (.IRIIVIPING DRUM fOR WIRE FENCE MACHINES- Patented my24,1921.

I APPLICATION FILED MAR. 22- I920- 1,378,957. 1 2 SHEEIS-SHEET 2.

HuuE.

WITNESSES .UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE.

, Jenn A. nomyronrsr, or woonrawn, BENNSYLYANIA,

flRI-MIING DRUM FOB-WIRE -EENCE MACHINES.

Specification of Letters P-atent. Pate ted 24 1921.

Application fi Ied March 22; 1920. Serial Ito. 3 6 7,' 706.

To all, whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that. I, JoHN A, HoL UIs'r, residing at. Woodlawn, in. the county of Beaver and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United" States, have invented or discovered certain, new and useful Improvements in Crimping-Drums for Wire-Fence Machines, of-which improvements the following is a specification.

My invention relates. to wire-fence machinery, and concerns the particular construction of the crimping drum, an essential feature of commercial machines of the present day.

The wirefence or field fence of frequent use, madeincontinuous length, consists of aplurality, of parallel strandwires, interconnected by stay wires which bridge at inter- Vals the spaces between the strand wires; the fence, then, is characterized by having longitudinally extending rectangular meshes. A, further featureis that the. strand. wires are, at regularly recurrent intervals,- and. in the spaces, between the points where; the stay wires areappliei, crimped into short waves of relatively. short radius. These crimps are, formed for two purposes: first, to take upsmall irregularities v in manufacture; and

second, to. render the. fence slightly expensicompleted. fence, but also as the instrumen tality by which tension. is exerted. onxthe strand wires, to; draw them through-the machine. This-feature last named'is present in the crimping drum; chosen for purposes of illustration, but it will be understood'that itiisnot essentialyto my present invention.

In the. accompanying drawings, Figure I isa View in side-elevation of amaohine of the Denning type, to the crimping. cylinder of which my present invention is. applied; Fig. IIis aview to; slightly larger scale transversely through the crimping drum, dissected of the fence, Iwhic from the ,remainderof the machine, In. this Flg. II parts are broken away toshow, inele- V21t1011,l7l16 cylinder head. Fig. III is aview in medial longitudinal section of the crim ing drum and showing also certain immenf ately associated parts. Fig. IV shows in plan, in section, and 'fragmentarily in side elevat on, a certain cam track; and Fig. V

' shows in plan and elevation a second cam track. These are parts of the machine, and their place and function will presently be described. f

In the crimping drumsv of the typical ,Denning machine, the principle of operation has. been to grasp the strandwiresat two closely adjacent points and, while the wires are held at those points against displacement, to impose on the short span of wire between a thrust in the plane of the general extent of the fence. and a .directiontransverse to its length, llhis was the natural waytoeffect thecrimp; natural, because of the necessity of keeping the fence asa whole in alinement, and natural, further, because it is the small portion of the metal, forming thebend, rather than. the lar e mass'of the remainder is turned aside. The

structure for. accomplishing this has. .in-

cluded two parallel bars withalined notches, spaced apart. sufficiently to allow. the development of the. crimp between, and crimpdeveloping fingers pivoted between, with means for swinging the fingers to shape the wire. into, crimps. In such an operat on as fence-making there are incidental minor variants: such, for

instance, asirregularities physical condition of material, the degree of wear of the machine parts, the effect of unworn replacements. As a result,.minor irregularities are found in the product... A machine may be set up and adjusted, to. produce. fence having an, interval [of say eight inches. between adjacent stay. wires; but-it'will be found by actual measurement-of the fabricatedarticlethat therewill in a' length of fence produced be appreciable departures'in dimension from that, standard eight-inch space. ,rFurthermorethe coils formed the ends of the stay wires wrapped about the strand wires are approximately an inch long, so that the length of free wire between a jacent stays is seven inches, more or less. It is within that. seven inches that the cr mping de ice mu t wor n machine u l g it is found convenient to mount the crimping instrumentalities two by two on bifurcated supports, and to form the crimps in the strand wire closely adjacent and on either side of every second stay-wire coil, rather than at the mid point of the spaces between the coils. With the crimps so placed, the stay wire applied between is more effectually secured against displacement longitudinally of the strand wires.

' The instrumentality which holds one portion of the wire against displacement while the crimp is being formed is, as has been indicated, a beam extending across the drum from head to head and sustaining the thrust of crimping, while the instrumentality which bends the wire is a finger, merely, pivoted to the beam. If then the main part of the web of fence be held stationary while the small length of wire which forms the crimp be bent aside, there will need to be two beams for each crimp, and a finger piv oted between. And if thebending instrumentalities are arranged in pairs to operate on either side of and closely adjacent to a stay-wire coil, the grouping of four beams becomes a matter of some difficulty, particularly in view of the fact that the space between each pair must be sufficiently wide to receive the stay-wire coil, with allowance for irregularity of the nature indicated.

In my crimping drum, I so far depart from the typical Denning arrangement, that it is the mid point of the crimp which I grasp and hold against displacement, and it is the remaining portion of the web of fence which I move forcibly to oneside. Theex 'tent of this lateral displacement is so small that there is no consequent disturbance of the assoclated fence-form1ng operatlons,

'while the gain (and herein is the spring of my invention) lies in this: I need employ only one beam, in place of the two usedby Denning, and so can build a drum on which the web of fence is less likely to foul. This reversal of parts and of movements is of particular advantage when it comes to the building of a drum with crimping instrumentalities grouped in pairs, to act upon the strand wires on either side of and closely;

adjacent the stay-wire coils.

Referring to the drawings, the crimping drum 2 is in Fig. I shown in its position in the machine. Comparing FigsII and III thedrum will be seen to consist of heads 40 and beams 41, mounted on a shaft 42. The drum may intermediate its length be strengthened by webs'43.

The beams 41 are arranged, itwill be observed, in parallel pairs, the beams of each pair lying parallel one to another; and the spaces between the members ofeach pair conveniently narrower than the spaces between pairs. This space between the members of notches 44, spaced according to the spacing of the strand wires in the web of fence, and to each pair of beams is pivoted adjacent the notches a succession of doubly bifurcated crimping members 45. The fingers of the crimping members extend in pairs, closely overlying each beam 41 on either side. The arrangement. is clearly shown in Fig. II.

Means are provided to impart to the crimping members aperiodic swingacross the notches and then back to retracted position; that is, from the osition shown in the lower part of Fig. III to that shown in the upper part, and then back again.

Such means are found in the, push bars 46, which engage theinner ends of the clamping members and which move longitudinally to effect the end indicated. Movement of the push bars 46 to and fro, longitudinally of the crimping drum is effected periodically in the course of rotation by means of cams 47,

48. These two cams, shown in assembly in Fig. III, are shown in detail in Figs. IV and V. It will be understood that they are carried rigidly in the machine frame, and are so arranged that each completes the circle partly described by the other." In other words, arranged at opposite ends of the drum, they act in alternation.

The operation will readily be understood, The drum is arranged to receive. aweb of fence upon its lower face, to crimp the web as it rises, and to release the crimped Web from its upper face. drum with the clamping members 45 below held in retracted position by engagement of beam 46 with cam 48, and notches 44 in beam 41 open. When these parts are in this position theweb of fence comes to position in the notches. Continued turning of the drum brings the beam 46 beyond the end of cam 48 and into. contact atits opposite end with cam 47. By such engagement and con- Fig. III shows the sequent'thrust, beam 46 is swung to the" right until it comes' to the position shown in the upper part of Fig. III. In consequence, the whole web of fence is pushed to the left, except only the lengths of wire resting at this point lifted, the strand wires rise from the notches 44, swinging the clamping members aside as they escape. The aid of cam 48 may of course be had to open the clamps allowing the fence to escape.

The advantage of this arrangement over the pre-existing one, in which two beams and one finger perform the ofiice here performed by one beam and two fingers, has been sufliciently indicated.

In the ensuing claims I define what is of the essence of my invention; otherwise, the mechanism is susceptible to modification, my showing being in these respects exemplary merely.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a wire-fence machine, a rotary crimping drum including a pair of beams extending longitudinally of the drum and arranged in parallelism, and provided with a succession of alined notches, and a corresponding succession of doubly bifurcated crimping members pivoted to said beams adjacent said notches with fingers overlying each of said beams on either side, and means for swinging said crimping members in predetermined synchronism with the rotation of said drum, substantially as described.

2. In a wire-fence machine, a rotary crimping drum, its cylindrical face formed of a succession of pairs of parallel beams, the beams provided with a succession of alined notches, each pair of beams provided with a corresponding succession of doubly bifurcated crimping members pivoted to said beams and having fingers overlying each beam on either side and in the range of pivotal swing of the members movable across said notches, a thrust beam engaging the succession of crimping members pivoted to each pair of parallel beams, and means for driving each thrust beam longitudinally of the drum as in the rotation of the drum it comes to a certain point in its path, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN A. HoLM UIsT.

Witnesses:

T. M. GIRDLER, O. E. GRESSBY. 

